Chapter 4
Hattie did not deny the affair.
That surprised Dominic.
She stood in the formal sitting room, still wearing the same jewelry from earlier.
Her wedding ring remained on her hand.
Dominic looked at it.
“Take it off.”
Hattie’s face hardened.
“No.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“You think the ring still belongs to you?”
“I’m still your wife.”
“No.”
The word came quietly.
Hattie pulled the ring off.
Placed it on the table.
For twelve years, Dominic had believed Hattie understood his world.
He now realized she understood ambition.
Different thing.
“Michael says Silas approached you.”
“He talks too much.”
“He slept with my wife. Talking is the least offensive thing he’s done.”
Hattie flinched.
Dominic sat.
“Why him?”
She laughed bitterly.
“Do you really want that answer?”
“No.”
He leaned back.
“But you’re going to give it.”
Hattie looked toward the fireplace.
“Because Michael looked at me.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You looked through me.”
“I married you.”
“You acquired me.”
The accusation had truth.
Dominic did not defend himself.
Their marriage began after years of political convenience.
Respect grew.
Affection, sometimes.
Love?
Dominic had never asked himself honestly.
Hattie had.
That did not excuse Donna.
Nothing could.
“You hated me enough to torture my mother.”
“I didn’t hate you.”
“That’s worse.”
Hattie’s eyes filled with anger.
“She knew.”
“About Michael?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She saw us.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“And?”
“She told me to end it.”
“Reasonable.”
“She threatened to tell you.”
“Also reasonable.”
Hattie laughed.
“You think I dragged her because of an affair?”
“Partly.”
“No.”
Fear replaced anger.
“Silas told me Donna had the key.”
“I know.”
“He said if I didn’t get it, Michael would die.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Michael says Silas offered you power.”
“He did.”
“Both can be true.”
“Yes.”
“Which mattered more?”
Hattie looked away.
Dominic understood.
At first, power.
Later, fear.
“What happened last week?”
Hattie’s face emptied.
Michael had been right.
Something changed.
“Where did you meet Silas?”
“The old train depot.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me I had seven days.”
“To get the key.”
“Yes.”
“Or?”
“He would send me Michael’s hand first.”
Dominic felt nothing useful about her concern for Michael.
“Anything else?”
Hattie began rubbing the place where her wedding ring had been.
“He showed me a photograph.”
“Of?”
“Your mother.”
“Where?”
“Asleep.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“In this house?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three nights ago.”
Someone had entered Donna’s room.
Silas or one of his people.
Michael had not opened that door.
Then who?
“Anything in the photograph?”
Hattie nodded.
“A man standing beside her bed.”
“Face?”
“No.”
“Anything recognizable?”
“Hand.”
Dominic waited.
“He wore a Coleman signet ring.”
Silence.
Only family had those.
Dominic.
Michael.
Donna kept Richard’s old ring.
There were distant cousins, but their crests differed.
“Which ring?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
Hattie continued.
“Silas said your house already belonged to him.”
Dominic felt the phrase.
Not threat.
Claim.
“What else?”
“He said Donna stole something from him twenty-six years ago.”
“The key.”
“No.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“A boy.”
The room became still.
“What boy?”
Hattie shook her head.
“He never said.”
“Michael?”
“I asked.”
“And?”
“Silas laughed.”
Dominic stared.
Twenty-six years earlier, Michael had been thirteen.
A boy.
Donna may have taken him from Silas’s influence.
Possible.
But Hattie’s expression suggested doubt.
“Did he call Michael his?”
“No.”
“What exactly?”
Hattie closed her eyes, remembering.
“He said, ‘Donna stole the only boy Richard couldn’t afford to lose.’”
Dominic’s breathing changed.
There had been another boy.
Not Michael.
A cousin?
A hidden child?
Hattie continued.
“Then he said something about you.”
“What?”
Her voice lowered.
“Dominic has spent his whole life believing he was Richard’s first weapon.”
A pause.
“He was the second.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You believed him.”
“I didn’t.”
“At first.”
“No.”
“But now?”
May you like
Hattie whispered:
“Now I think someone lived in this house before you who everyone was ordered to forget.”
